Bobby Arthur Hixon

Bobby Arthur Hixon, 85, departed this life peacefully in his sleep in Springfield, Mo., on Nov. 29, 2012, having been in ill health since suffering a severe stroke on May 8, 2010.

Staff Reports

Bobby Arthur Hixon, 85, departed this life peacefully in his sleep in Springfield, Mo., on Nov. 29, 2012, having been in ill health since suffering a severe stroke on May 8, 2010.

Bobby was born July 10, 1927 in Carthage, the youngest of the four children of Homer Virgil Hixon and Pansy Jeanette Hixon nee Stutzman. His father was a farmer, auctioneer, and trader who kept the family on the move around Jasper and Lawrence Counties. Bobby grew up working on the family farms and going to school, graduating in 1945 from Lockwood High School where he was a basketball letterman.

On June 17, 1946, Bobby married Nadine Fern Charles and to this union two sons, Billy Eugene Hixon and James Mack Hixon, were born. Bobby continued to farm and to help his father with farming, auctioneering, and other family ventures including operating Midway service station and café on old US Route 66 near Avilla. In 1955, Bobby and Nadine bought a farm between the Lawrence County towns of Red Oak and Grey's Point.

Over the next 40 years Bobby and Nadine increased their farm to 350 acres and cattle to over 100 head. From 1953 until 1989 Bobby also worked for Federal Crop Insurance Corp. as a supervisor and claims adjustor. When he retired from that work there was hardly a county road in all of his twenty-county territory that he hadn't driven or a farmer he hadn't met. Bobby's hobbies included quail and deer hunting; collecting schoolhouse bells; bowling (his five-man team won the Missouri State Bowling Championship in 1970); welding (particularly making gates using old iron wheels); and, in later years, attending Missouri State University's Men's Basketball games.

Blessed with the gift of gab and a superb memory, Bobby was most fond of reminiscing and sharing wisdom, and he never let having once told a tale stop him from telling it again. In 1998, Bobby and Nadine retired from the farm and moved to Springfield where Bobby continued to make friends in his Marlborough Manor neighborhood.

Bobby was preceded in death by his parents; his son, James Mack; his brother, Emery H. "Bill" Hixon and his wife Annis; his sister, Arline Campbell and her husband Walter Scott Campbell; and his sister, Norine Hawks and her husband Warren Hawks.

He is survived by his wife, Nadine; his son, Billy and wife Carolin of Springfield; his granddaughter, Christine A. Smiley and husband Kenneth of Lewisville, Texas; great-grandsons, Nolan K. and Trevor M. Smiley also of Lewisville; numerous nieces and nephews; the best of neighbors, including Mike, Sandy, Anna, Michael and Austin Meyers; and countless friends.

Very special thanks are extended to the Meyers family for the loving care and assistance given Bobby and Nadine. Thanks also to the nursing staff at the Neighborhoods at Quail Creek where Bobby resided since 2010.

Services for Bobby will be on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, at and under the care of Greenfield Funeral Chapel, Greenfield, with a family visitation starting at 1:00 p.m. and funeral services following at 2:30 p.m. Burial will follow in Red Oak Cemetery. Bobby is now an angel among us; may he rest in peace.